Sunday, January 27, 2008

Manhattan - Woody Allen

I love New York, at least the way it used to be, before Bloomberg and Giuliani. The 70s may have been a painful time for NY, but damn, they were fun too, and New York was gorgeous as all hell. Now, in this age of luxury condos and rampant overdevelopment, it does my heart some solace to see a reminder of what the city used to represent. Woody Allen gets his share of (deserved) crap, but no one can fail to acknowledge his towering genius and his love for his home town.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Yay! I am 93% geek!

How about you?









Take the Sci fi sounds quiz I received 93 credits on
The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz

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Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas, Everyone

...and to all a good night.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Get a Mac Santa Claus HD quality

I really like this MAc ad, and if you grew up watching the Rankin Bass Christmas specials during their first runs on network TV - gad, can that really have been 30-plus years ago?? - I think you will too. Of course, loving Mac can't hurt :-). Enjoy....

Monday, December 10, 2007

Michael at Target 2

Taken while Michael was walking around the photography studio, waiting to take pictures. I really, really love his voice...

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Trader Joes and our Conversion

So, yeah, yeah, I changed my mind.

When the Trader Joe's opened on 14th Street a few years back, I couldn't understand why everybody was making so much fuss over what I though to be a Long Island-based supermarket opening in the city. Ting and I even went in once and were not unduly impressed, which made the adulation for the place on the part of some customers all the more unfathomable.

Flash forward a few years. Now Michael is here. Now things have changed.

Today we woke up early, thanks to a full-on sonic assault from Michael that began at 6 AM and went on until 7:45, when we surrendered and crawled out of bed. We had to get breakfast and so we decided to combine that with a trip to the new Trader Joe's market on Woodhaven Boulevard and Metropolitan Avenue, which is only technically a Forest Hills location. We got a Q23 in time, made it to McDonald's, and afterwards walked the three blocks to the TJ's, which shares the space with an (as yet still unopened) Michael's crafts store and a Staples and is one parking lot away from Sports Authority and Home Depot.

We were floored. It was as if scales had fallen from our eyes. The place was moderately crowded but was filling up quickly at 10:30 on a Sunday morning. We began to inspect for food and prices.

The key word was "organic." Trader Joe's has a LOT of organic foods, a lot of vegan and vegetarian-friendly products, and all of the items we looked at today were for sale at unit prices that trounced those for comparable fare at C-Town, Key Food, Trade Fair, the Natural, Amish Market, and Organic Forever.

In short, we had a lot of fun, loaded up with 2 insulated bags and 2 paper shopping bags, and left. And yes, we now know that TJ's is based out of Monrovia, CA.

In sum: we will be back, although the lack of a car will make it tricky. It is that compelling. Now it may just be the "new store" factor, although I earnestly hope not. The other stores I mentioned above, in particular the Natural, need a quick boot in the pants to wake them up to this new competition. I can definitely see people who live on the Forest Hills Gardens switching, to say nothing of the folks who are coming in from Middle Village, Maspeth, and Glendale.

So yeah, we changed our minds. I, for one, welcome our new supermarket overlords. All hail Trader Joe's!

Friday, November 09, 2007

The Mafia's 10 Commandments

Discovered in the Sicilian hideout of a Mafioso, the Mafia's 10 commandments:

1. No-one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife's about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Here, bunny bunny! Here, RABBIT!

This is just too cool to ignore (from Gothamist:)


This is absolutely astounding. It comes from a British advertising firm, and it adds more credence to my theory that a lot of the best and brightest minds in the world are going into fields like advertising - this video not only demands creativity, but smarts. Nice, nice job.